Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We looked at what the appropriate structure will be for east-west engagement because, as the Deputy rightly points out, at the moment we bump into British ministers all the time in Brussels, Strasbourg and Luxembourg. That will not happen in the future so we are planning to set up the kind of structure that France and Germany, and Portugal and Spain, have, whereby, at least once a year, there will be a Government-to-Government summit every second year in Britain and Ireland. It would obviously involve the Prime Minister and Taoiseach and also the relevant Ministers in the key portfolios. That would require that senior civil servants prepare for that a long way out to look at what Britain and Ireland should be doing together strategically in the interests of both countries, and there are many examples of areas where we could be doing more.

The Government is absolutely committed to the Stormont House Agreement. We have just been through a consultation process in Northern Ireland on that and the British Government is committed to bringing forward new legislation to follow through on that consultation, which was a difficult enough consultation, as one would expect, because legacy is particularly sensitive in Northern Ireland for all families concerned.

The security co-operation was primarily around PSNI and Garda co-operation. There have been a lot of joint initiatives that have been very successful in recent weeks and months in respect of cross-Border crime and so on. The Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, dealt with that comprehensively.

Both Governments are committed to introducing new legislation, if necessary, to reinforce the functioning of a common travel area post Brexit. That will take effect, in terms of new proposals, in the coming weeks and months.

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